March 12, 2010

blooming jasmine is in the air again……. it is that time of the year…… here in Los Angeles we do have the good fortune for a couple of weeks each spring to be blessed with it’s generous and sensual fragrance perfuming the air……. you cannot avoid it…… just take a few steps out of your house, and your nose will pick up it’s fragrance pretty soon…….

most of the year an unassuming, modest vine that won’t catch your eye…… and then all of a sudden, there it is…….. a generous waterfall of tiny pink buds and white blossoms and feathery leaves………

now, it is so worth it to take that fragrance into your home…….. you won’t need much……. just break a couple of those clusters of blooms off the vine, re-cut the tiny stems again once you’re home and put them in a bud vase filled with water to place by your house altar, into a guest room to make someone feel welcome or into a powder room……

it’s just a small accent, yet it makes a huge impact on your senses…….. believe me…… and it’s only around once a year…….

November 14, 2009

my friend loretta encouraged me to put this on my blog, even though this is not strictly related to “flowers for homes”…… it’s more “flowers for spiritual places”.

i used to go somewhat regularly to the zen center LA, a spiritual oasis founded by a japanese zen master in 1967. the place consists of 4 craftsman houses and its surrounding gardens.

i still very much enjoy doing the flowers for the various altars there……

for the zendo, the meditation hall, right next to an antique figurine of manjushri, the boddhisatva of wisdom who carries a sword, cause he cut’s through your delusions….. the 2 rooms were teachers give formal interviews, the dining hall, the buddha hall and the dharma hall…….

some spiritual places, you just soak the energy up once you’re there……

i enjoy doing my flowers there, all slow and aware…….

being grateful to the flowers which have just graced the altars the previous week and which i will put afterwards into the green recyling…… and gratefully and gracefully arranging the new flowers i have selected at the market for the various vases…..

of course i don’t do ikebana there. that is a highly regulated craft which i appreciate, but it’s not my approach there. i guess i approach doing the flowers there from a point of grace and modesty, in a way. kind of being playful in a naive way. not too much thought. just letting the flowers be.

as i wrote before, at some spiritual places, you just soak the energy up once you’re there……

was very impressed by the vows members had put up in the zendo……

the ones that impressed me the most were

i vow to be where i am.
and
i vow to know the luminous heart of all beings.